Kotaku: year in review 2008

Kotaku's Most Read and Commented Stories of 2008

Brian Crecente — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 10:00:00 MST

We've given you the site's most popular videos, features and reporting, but what single story was the most read on Kotaku in 2008. And which story elicited the most comments?

Surprise! The most popular involves nudity!

Most Read
Playboy's Jo Garcia Pwns Wii Fit Girl
Nintendo Announce New DS: The Nintendo DSi
The Top 50 Cosplay Cleavage Shots [Updated]
Which Version Of GTA IV Should You Buy? We Compare The PS3 and 360 Versions
This Hands-Free Super Mario World Level Plays Sweet, Sweet Music

Most Commented On
Liveblogging Microsoft e3 2008 Press Conference
Nintendo E3 08 Press Conference Liveblog
Sony E3 08 Press Conference Liveblog
"Clearly No One Black Worked On This Game"
Final Fantasy XIII Coming To Xbox 360

A Year In Review: The Top Reviews Of 2008

Michael McWhertor — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 18:30:33 MST

2008 was the year that we decided to get off our butts, start reviewing games and finally tell the game blog reading populace exactly what we thought of Haze. It was a very good year.

While we'd "reviewed" games in the past, we didn't have a format that we were happy with. We settled that in 2008, arriving on a format that was geared toward how we personally wanted games to be reviewed: keep it brief, keep it numerically score-free and ensure that we'd beaten the game (or come as close to it) before we weighed in. So far, it seems to be working out pretty well.

As we head in 2009, we decided to take a look back at the biggest, most popular reviews on Kotaku. The list of games that received the most attention was sometimes surprising. Sometimes not. Let's revisit them, shall we? We'll be back next year with more reviews, refined previews and plenty of flaming opportunities.

Top Reviews
Grand Theft Auto IV Review: Life, Liberty City And The Pursuit Of Happiness
The Force Unleashed Review: As If Millions of Star Wars Fans Suddenly Cried Out
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe Review: Finish Him
Mirror’s Edge Review: Leaps of Faith End in Splat
Call of Duty: World at War Review: The Modern Warfare Effect
Left 4 Dead Review: 2 Good 2 B 4gotten
Fallout 3 Review: Wasting Away Again In Radiationville
Too Human Review: Dyack's Human Too
Haze Review: It Sure Beats Pumping Gas
Prince Of Persia Review: Like Sands Through The Hourglass

A Year in Review: The Top Features and Reporting Of 2008

Brian Crecente — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 10:00:00 MST

It's been a pretty amazing year for the game's industry. We've seen record sales, major layoffs, the disbarment of Jack Thompson and not a few smaller stories to mull over as well.

I combed through the year's worth of features and original stories that ran on our site this year to find the most read among them. That isn't to say these are our best efforts, but they're certainly our most popular. They also offer interesting insight into what you, the readers, find most interesting.

The top ten features of 2008 includes an ecclectic mix of topics which touch on everything from the sorts of desks developers keep, to dissecting and disproving the Madden curse, to a highbrow discussion of objectivism in BioShock with Ken Levine and the president of the Ayn Rand Institute.

Who says gamers aren't smart?

Top Features
It's Shocking, We're Pissed, Wii Fit Sorta Works
What Game Developers Do When Their Games Launch
Activison's Ex is Now Playboy's Miss November (And She Prefers Rock Band!)
GTA4 Hands-On: The World is Yours
Work and Play: A Peek Inside the Lives of Gaming's Greatest
GTA IV: Reinventing a World
Pure Energy: A Critical Look At Energy Drinks
Feasting On The Bones Of The Madden Curse
No Gods or Kings: Objectivism in BioShock
Does Survival Horror Really Still Exist?

Top Originals
Nintendo Torpedoes The Wii Grey Market
Which Version Of GTA IV Should You Buy? We Compare The PS3 and 360 Versions
EA Calls Fox Out on "Insulting" Mass Effect Inaccuracies
Rockstar Support: No GTA Freeze Fix in Sight
Two Brothers Meditating Upon Questions of Pac-Man
A 70-year-old's Take on GTA IV
Holy Crap, King of Fighters XII Is 100 Percent Hand Drawn
Jack Thompson Walks Out On Hearing, Bar Recommends Enhanced
Disbarment
Jack Thompson Disbarred
Thompson Responds To Disbarment

Also check out our most popular videos of 2008.

What were your favorite features and originals of the year.

The Top Gaming Videos of 2008

Brian Crecente — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 16:00:00 MST

With the year quickly wrapping up it's time to start rolling out some lists, lists of popular things on Kotaku!

First up: Our most popular videos of 2008. Leading the charge of original videos is Owen's first-hand experience with Grand Theft Auto and a bottle of whiskey. Other popular original vids include Tristan checking out the Wii Wheel, our totally unscientific comparison of Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour drums and of course oodles of podcasts. What didn't make the list? Adam's wonderful Kaketakumentary and my horrible cooking.

What were you favorite video game videos of 2008? Feel free to dump links in the comments.